The mahogany table in the back of Rao’s wasn’t just furniture; it was the altar of East Harlem. For decades, the bosses of the —the Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese, Bonanno, and Colombo—had sat there, carving up New York like a Thanksgiving turkey.

The fall didn't happen with a bang, but with a wiretap. When Rudy Giuliani and the FBI weaponized the , the "Commission" fell apart. One by one, the titans—Fat Tony Salerno, John Gotti, Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo—traded their silk suits for orange jumpsuits.

But by the late 1980s, the carving knife had turned into a scalpel. The Rise: The Golden Age of Concrete